Turning tides
by kokoyuki27
Summary: Omg please stop reading this there's no way I'm updating any time soon Q Q. It started off as a one-shot Q Q I am serious guys this is discontinued.
1. Chapter 1

Pitch sat on his ice cold throne, surrounded by the dark comforts of his lair. Tapping his fingertips together, he contemplated his plan once again.

As far as he could tell, the guardians were alarmed. Perfect. He needed his grand arrival after his long dreaded hibernation. Let the world know that he's back, teach them to chant his name in fear and hide in the darkest corners of their homes. Let their hopes perish.

Oh what precious moments those would be.

"Ah, you've returned, my black beauties." Noticing the creatures of fear creeping out from the shadows towards him, Pitched raised a hand and motioned for the dark horses to come closer.

One of them trotted up to him and nudged at his shoulder with its head, trying to get his attention. As pitched turned to look at his prized pet, the creature stopped and with its dark sand, weaved a black and white image above its head.

It was a simple outline of a person, but what the image represented was nothing close to simple. Pitch pursed his lips as details were added to the figure. The figure was no doubt a male judging from the facial features; a teen perhaps. The teen's hair was covered by the hoodie he was wearing, but Pitch didn't have to see it to know what colour the hair was. All he needed to see to know the teen's identity was the staff he was holding. A simple wooden staff with a moon shaped curve at the very top.

"Jack Frost," were the only words he was able to manage as he promptly stood up from his throne, dismayed. "The moon man chose him? As a guardian?" He pointed a finger at the figure and looked at his black beauties with wide questioning eyes before bursting into a fit of laughter.

Of course, the horses remained silent. There was no need of an answer.

"Let us be on our way then, mustn't be rude to our new recruit." Resuming to his cold and composed self, he clapped his hands together and settled himself on one of the horses.

"Of course, finders keepers. The guardians only have themselves to blame." He grinned as the new plan formulated in his head. "How delightful, I really do enjoy company."

* * *

Jack stood on the base of a statue, leaning against the statue itself as he looked down at the bunch of excited kids, listening to their heated conversation with a satisfied grin on his face.

He sure showed them fun.

"Did you see that? Did you? I literally flew in the air! It's like 'whoosh!' and then 'zoom!' and then 'ka-bam!'" the boy exclaimed with animated tone and gestures, his cheeks red from both the cold and the thrill ride on a sled. Curtest of Jack, of course.

"You are very much welcomed." Jack laughed, contented to see the kids enjoying themselves.

"And the best part? I even got a tooth knocked out! See?" The boy held out his fisted hand, opening it to show off his tooth; knocked out by a flying sofa. Again, Jack proudly took the credit of that.

"Oh yeah, flying sofas. Everyone loves them." Jack nodded with a smile as he toyed with his staff.

"Cool! It's like you get paid for having fun!" One of the boy's friends pointed out.

"Yeah! I just can't wait for the tooth fairy to see this." The boy nodded in agreement as he held the white tooth to the sun. He had been flossing and brushing his teeth like a good boy should, just so the tooth fairy would be happy to get his pearl white tooth.

"Huh? Wait. What? Tooth fairy? What's that got to do with her? Hello? Did everyone forget that I gave you all the fun and the snow?" Jack's grin dropped as he helplessly watched the kids continue their conversation, changing the topic to something else.

It's like all of a sudden, he was being completely forgotten.

"I wonder how she looks like."

"I heard she's got wings!"

"And, and big eyes!"

The kids discussed as they started walking home, leaving Jack to his unheard words.

"… And I don't even get a thanks?" Jack sighed as he watched the kids walked further away and dropped his shoulders.

There's no use. They won't hear him, they won't see him, and they won't even know who he was. To them, he's just another gust of chilling wind, another snow day, and another frosted glass for them to draw on. He's a nobody, and it looked like he was going to stay that way.

Once again, Jack found himself wondering why he existed.

* * *

By the time Pitch was able to track Jack's location, night had already fallen. Silently following Jack in the shadows, he found himself smiling when he noticed Jack having a low mood.

Darkness always had a way with low moods.

Sending one of his horses to lure Jack over, he patiently waited in a dark quiet corner of the city for Jack's arrival. Sure enough, in a bone chilling gust of wind, Jack arrived behind him.

Curious creatures, always such easy preys.

"Ahh, Jack Frost, is it?" Turning around, Pitch asked as he looked at the teen in front of him. He still couldn't understand why the boy didn't wear shoes, but that question will have to wait.

"And you are…" Jack raised a brow at the person in front of him.

"You couldn't possibly have not heard of me, we've met a long, long time ago." Pitch put up the friendliest smile he could manage.

"No I'm pretty sure we've never met before. Either that, or you're not important enough for me to remember you." Jack smiled cheekily as he hugged his staff.

"Still haven't lost your sense of humour, I see." Pitch laughed dryly. "So, how has it been?"

"Oh, you know, just breezing life by." Jack replied with a waving gesture, eyeing his old friend at the same time. Guy's not changed in any way. Still the same old boring clothing and the most peculiar eye colour. Giving his horses a glance, he made a mental note that his friend here at least had an eye for cool pets. Now if only those horses were blue, ice blue…

"I see you're still living the free and rule-less life. Please, have a seat." Pitch offered as he snapped his fingers together. A horse responded to the order as it quickly lost its shape, returning to a pile of black sand. The sand then split into two and swirled to regroup into two chairs.

"No intentions of changing how I live, thank you very much." Jack replied and gladly settled on one of the chairs, a little amazed by how stable it is. "So, what's the Bogey man doing here? You stirring something up again?"

"Nothing much, actually." The latter shrugged. "I'd offer you tea, but as you can see, my resources are rather limited."

"No thanks. No way I'm drinking tea anyway." The white haired teen shook his head and stuck out his tongue in mock disgust.

"I'm looking forward to being seen again." Ending the polite chat, Pitch decided that it was time to get straight to the point.

"Being seen again?" Upon hearing that, Jack almost immediately looked up at Pitch, who was smiling. "How are you planning to do that?"

"I have my ways, of course. Would you consider joining me? It would be delightful if you do."

"Join you in doing what?" He asked, feeling his heart hanging.

"Being believed in. Once the children start believing us, they'll see us. You will no longer be a nobody, isn't that what you've always been hoping for?" Pitch asked as he looked into the boy's ice blue eyes, waiting for an answer.

Jack was never one to be indecisive, and this time wasn't going to be any different. He's been waiting to be seen for as long as he could remember, and here? Here someone's offering him a chance. One that he might never ever have the luck to stumble upon again.

"Any fun guaranteed?" He asked with a grin, showing his snow white teeth.

"Allow me to ask, how did you find the blizzard of 68?" Pitch simply asked, knowing that he's got this one.

"Ahh you know, ice, wind, more ice, crazy Easter and a hopping mad kangaroo." Jack listed with a lazy tone.

"Fun, nonetheless?"

"Wouldn't mind doing it again any other day." After all, playing tricks was something he found worthy living for.

"Then be assured that this won't disappoint you one bit. With the both of us working together, darkness and ice, things would be a breeze." Pitch offered a hand. "Care to join me?"

"For the fun and chaos of it." Jack grinned and gladly took it. "Count me in."

"Brilliant. Let's be on our way then, there's so much to do, and so little time."

"Do I get to ride your horse?" Jack shot up from his seat and pointed to one of the horses, who almost immediately took a step back.

"Take your pick. Though beware, some of them have quite the temper." Pitch simply smiled, and as jack was busily choosing his ride among the group of horses, left a message on the walls.

"Can I paint this one blue?"

"…I don't suppose you can paint them…"

"Ah, details." The teen waved his hands dismissively and clicking at the horse's body with the tip of his staff, the horse was immediately covered in ice spikes- no, every speck of sand that made up the horse had turned into ice, yet the horse remained alive and mobile.

Pitch was speechless.

"See? This is what you call a cool horse." Jack smiled proudly as he settled on his new ride.

"Quite literally, I would say. " A little disappointed with the loss of one of his black beauties, Pitch settled on his horse as well and the two faded into the shadows. Might as well, a horse for a precious companion was more than just a good bargain.

"Do I get to mess with the guardians?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. There's plenty of chances everywhere."

* * *

"We're too late." Staring at the writings on the wall, Bunnymund sighed.

Great, now the Santa with tattoos' gonna give him a real earful. Bunnymund rolled his eyes at the thought of North and his nagging. The two Yetis behind him dropped the bag in disappointment. To think they were so excited that they could finally do something that didn't involve toys for a change.

"Pitch's got him now." He turned to face the two yetis as he pointed to the wall.

On the wall, written in black, was a single sentence.

"Finders keeps, guardians. This time, the tide will turn."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, mind telling me why we're at Tooth's place again? Not looking for spare change, are we?" Jack asked Pitch as he slowly turned on the spot, taking his time as he stare at the place in awe.

As expected from the tooth fairy. The scene was breath taking, what with the floating structures bursting with colors and filled with little tubes containing sets of teeth. The place was filled with the tooth fairy's little helpers; tiny fairies resembling humming birds. He didn't have to worry about being seen, though. One of Pitch's ability was concealing himself and who or whatever he wanted to hide.

"Of course not, money is of no value to me." Pitch joined Jack in looking at the structure; a little bit of appreciation before ruining this beautiful place.

"I don't know. You can always buy yourself some new clothes. You know, something not black." Turning back, Jack pulled at Pitch's sleeve and suggested with a smug grin.

"I'd rather not waste effort on fashion." He replied without looking at the teen. "Black happens to be a pure color that suits everything."

"It is also dull and makes you look boring. Oh well, suit yourself." Jack shrugged; he had to admit that black was probably the only color that's going to suit his friend here. Imagining Pitch in pink would be a nightmare.

Yeah, black's good.

"Then, what are we here for?" Swirling his staff about in his hand, Jack asked.

"For a game, of course. I'm a man of my words, and if it's fun I guaranteed, it's fun I'll give." Pitched smiled and pointed to the busy little fairies.

"We'll have a competition to see who can trap the most fairies, and just for you my friend, there's no rules."

"Sweet." Jack grinned and tightened his grip on his staff.

"Just don't let any of them escape, won't want any uninvited players, would we?" With that, Pitch waved his hand outwards, signifying the start of their little game.

* * *

"What do you mean we don't have him?" North demanded in his rich Russian accent as he stared at Bunnymund with wide shocked eyes.

"Exactly what I said." Bunnymund lifted the empty sack for everyone to see.

Tooth gasped and held a hand to her mouth; Sandy formed a huge exclamation mark with his dream sand and North. Well. North's eyes couldn't be opened wider.

"Oh don't feel too bad about it. We all have little failures here and there." Tooth flew to Bunnymund and placed a hand on his shoulder; she glanced at Sandy, who quickly nodded in agreement.

"True, but this failure here may cost us more than a few unhappy children." North pointed out, "What happened?"

"Pitch happened." Bunnymund shrugged and dropped the sack before telling the other guardians the message that Pitch left them.

"Grimsly Gorsicles!" North muttered, obviously stunned by the current situation. The others didn't have a clue on what he meant, but there's a more important problem at hand.

"Shouldn't we do something? Jack might be in danger." Tooth asked, worried.

"Wouldn't worry 'bout that mate, Jack Frost won't be easily hurt by some nightmares. That fella's got nothing to fear— holy." As he was assuring Tooth, something struck his mind as his eyes widened.

"Looks like we're going to need some sweaters then." North simply said as he clapped his hands, calling his yetis.

"Sweaters? Sweaters aren't going to stop Jack Frost!" Bunnymund argued.

Tooth and Sandy simply exchanged a look, both still a little puzzled about what's happening.

"They keep you warm."

"He's not just going to give us chills!"

"Jack's not a bad boy!"

"Well then I ain't the Easter bunny either."

"You aren't?" Tooth asked with a raised tone, surprised.

"Of course I am!" Bunnymund shook his head in disbelieve; some people just can't tell sarcasm.

"Look." North sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Christmas is coming soon and Pitch coming at us during this time makes me more concerned than all of you, but-"

"Now you're just saying that Christmas is more important than Easter." Bunnymund rolled his eyes.

"Hahaha, now you get the idea!" North's eyes lit up to that as he let out a heartening laugh; Santa's special.

With that, the two of them started the old argument over who's day was more important. Easter day or Christmas?

"They never give up, do they?" Tooth asked, getting a helpless shrug from Sandy as the two watched the debate in front of them.

Tooth was just about to go up and try stopping them when a quick sudden pain hit her, getting her attention. Knowing what the pain could only mean, she turned and flew out of North's place as fast as her wings could carry her.

Noticing this, Sandy immediately understood that something bad must have happened. Turning to face the quarreling pair, he waved his hands frantically in hope to get noticed. That hardly worked.

He tried calling them, but since he couldn't speak, the dream sand went crazy above his head as different shapes formed and changed in a few seconds.

That didn't work either.

Annoyed, Sandy was about to throw something at the two when one of Santa's elves passed by, the bell on the elf's hat getting Sandy's attention. Grabbing the elf as a hat, he started shaking it madly.

"We have a Christmas tree—" hearing the bell, North paused and turned to look at Sandy, Bunnymund followed.

Having finally caught their attention, Sandy pointed to the spot beside him where Tooth was just a moment ago. The dream sand formed a huge arrow and pointed at the spot too. Just in case two hands pointing at a spot wasn't enough hint.

"Where's Tooth?" Bunnymund asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Sandy nodded immediately, almost thankful that someone else finally realized what's wrong.

"Sandy! Why didn't you just say so?" North exclaimed and quickly turned to call for his sled. Behind him, two steaks of dream sand blew out of Sandy, who was obviously pissed.

What in the world was he trying do all those time while they were arguing?!

* * *

"Two hundred and fifty six, ha, beat that." Jack counted as he trapped another little fairy in his huge container made out of ice. He even made sure that it wasn't too cold in the container for the fairies.

Turning around, however, he saw Pitch standing on two, waiting as his pets, a few dozens of them; gallop around in the air and trapping the fairies for him.

"Hey! That's not fair!" He argued and flew towards Pitch.

"There's no rules, remember?" The latter simply smiled.

… Oh. Right.

"Well then, two can play at that game!" With a sly grin, he flew up towards the horses, snuck up behind them and started tapping them with his staff. Before Pitch knew it, he was staring at a group of ice horses.

"They count as mine, thank you very much!" Jack grinned victoriously.

"Very well then," Looking up at Jack and his newly acquired horses, Pitch snapped his fingers together. Almost immediately, swarms of dark beauties emerged from the shadows and spread out in the sky. "Let's bring the challenge up a notch."

With that, the game continued, and before they knew it, they've gotten every fairy visible.

"Aw man, that was fun. Let's do that again!" Sitting on the very top of a structure, Jack suggested.

"I would very much agree with you, but it seems that our uninvited guests are arriving." Clapping his hands together, all the horses started retreating into the dark, disappearing in the shadows, except for one that remained beside Pitch.

"Let's be on our way, our guests are, unfortunately, not as friendly."

Knowing who Pitch was referring to, Jack raised his staff and pointed it in the direction of Pitch's lair. His horses nodded and left in the instructed direction, bringing the ice container full of fairies along with them.

Such obedient pets. Jack made a mental note to ask Pitch for advice he he's ever going to train his own pets.

"You're not planning to walk, are you?" Noticing that Jack had sent all the horses away, Pitch couldn't help but ask.

"Nah, I've already got transportation covered." Grinning, he put his hand to his mouth and whistled loudly.

Within seconds, a neigh was heard as an ice blue horse galloped towards Jack. Pitch simply watched, amazed. The horse stopped beside Jack and nuzzled at jack's shoulder, showing obvious affection and trust.

… That boy managed to completely tame his horse in less than a few days?

"Easy boy." Jack laughed and pet the horse on the head."

"I see you've already found a favorite." Pitch remarked, noticing that the horse looked different from the other horses Jack had transformed just now.

So he even modified the horse?

"What can I say?" Jack shrugged, "Even horses can't resist my charms." He joked.

"…Very well then, let's be on our way." Pitch rode on his horse and waved at Jack to follow.

Now, let the guardians come.

* * *

When the three joined Tooth at her palace, everything was already over.

"Gone, gone, gone, gone!" Tooth chanted as she flew around, checking her place. "They took all my fairies and the teeth!" She sobbed.

Bunnymund stuck his boomerang back in its sheath and walking up to Tooth, placed a hand (…paw?) on her shoulder.

"It's alright mate, we all have little failures here and there." He consoled.

"Bunny's right. We can't predict or prevent everything from happening." North added. "But what we can do, is fix things." He smiled encouragingly. "Right Sandy?"

Sandy nodded almost immediately as the dream sand formed a fixing patch above his head. The group laughed.

"The first thing to do, of course, is to get the teeth collecting done." North suggested, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thank you so much for the help, all of you." Tooth flew from one guardian to another, her eyes filled with gratitude.

"Always there for each other, mate." Bunnymund smiled as he tossed the empty sack over his shoulder. "Just tell us what to do."

"Bunny's right. Never too busy to help." North replied with a warm smile. "Right Sandy?" He asked as he looked down at his friend beside him.

The other two turned to look at Sandy too, who, surprising, fell asleep.

"Sandy? Sandy!" North called as he patted Sandy's shoulder, waking the latter up. When Sandy finally realized what was going on, he immediately gave tooth the thumbs up, along with a reassuring smile.

"Oh, thank you all so much!" Tooth thanked again. "Especially since Christmas is so close. I'm really sorry North."

"No need." Santa waved his hand dismissively. "That is what yetis are good for" He smiled.

"Well then, let's go! The children are waiting!" Tooth exclaimed with an excited smile on her face. It's been a long time since she had personally collected the teeth.

* * *

"Hey, have you ever thought of decorating your lair?" Jack asked as he hopped from one corner of the lair to another, investigating every rock and pebble.

For a lair this big, he was surprised how completely boringly empty it was. If it wasn't for the pile of tubes full of teeth sitting at the center of the lair and the cages of little fairies hanging from the ceiling, this place would be a complete bore.

"I happen to prefer a simple and nice environment." Pitch replied, sitting on his throne and observing the spinning globe model in front of him. The globe showed only the continents of Earth and on each continent were lights; a symbol of children under the guardians' watch.

The lights started slowly disappearing since they raided tooth's palace, but the dimmed spots were starting to light up again. He smiled, satisfied.

"Someone's living the plain and monotone life." Jack muttered as he rolled his eyes. Hmm… Maybe he could give this place a makeover. A few glaciers here and there should lift the mood.

"Hmm, you said something?" Pitch lifted an eyebrow.

"Just wondering why you brought the fairies back." Changing the topic, Jack put on his most innocent smile and shrugged.

"To keep the guardians busy of course. Wouldn't want them in our way and spoiling the fun, would we?" Pitch smiled as he stood up from his throne.

"Let me guess, we're going to wreck another place up, aren't we?" Jack grinned as he rested his staff on his shoulder.

"Not just any place, but the place you've always been dreaming of." Pitch smiled as he summoned his ride. "And it just so happens that Santa won't be at home for a while. Interested?"

"I call dibs on the yeti." Jack whistled.

* * *

"Ok, here's the plan." Arriving outside Santa's workshop, Jack started explaining his foolproof strategy.

"I'll charge in from the door and start freezing everything I see."

"Jac-"

"You'll use your shadow-ey ability and enter through the windows. See that second one over there? That one." Jack pointed to a big wooden window. "Don't go in by the first one or you'll fall straight into a pool of cookie mix. They stick to your hair and are a pain to wash off." He warned with a disgusted shrug, speaking from experience.

"Jack,-"

"Also, stay in the shadows at all times. Watch out for yetis. They might look harmless but man they pack a punch. One of them like to throw elves at you, so don't ever start a fight unless needed." He listed as he pointed to each of his finger each time a point was mentioned.

"Jack, if you give me a-"

"Finally, always keep your head low. This is especially important if you don't want a free haircut. Someone ought to give those elves a license before they get to drive the toy helicopters. Then again, maybe a new haircut is just what you need." Putting his hand down, Jack looked up at Pitch's hair and decided that a new style was definitely good.

"Are you using gel on your hair?"

Pitch sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes." Jack nodded to himself. "So, any questions about our plan?" he smiled, showing two rows of snow white teeth.

"…Yes. Might I suggest another alternative?" Pitch raised his hand.

"Yeah sure why not? You learn fast from failures after all." Jack nodded and leaned against his staff, waiting to listen to this new idea.

"… Very well then." Pitch tapped his fingertips together. "Could I ask you to take a step closer?"

"Sure. Speaking of which, you think you can get your horses in there? They'll do a fine job keeping the yetis busy." Taking a step forward, Jack suggested.

He wasn't sure if the yetis would be scared of the dark beauties, but they'll at least be occupied. It was then when the thought of Pitch in pink came back to him.

Yeah, those yetis would freak out and run for their lives if that were to ever happen.

"Delightful. Now stay right there." Pitch smiled as the end of his robe started growing around them.

"Err… Is your robe supposed to do that?" Jack asked, eyeing the coal black robe as it grew upwards, surrounding the both of them.

"For the sake of a safe journey, I suggest no questions as well." Pitch advised.

… Ok that was obviously threatening.

Knowing that his friend here's perfectly capable of making the journey a painful one, Jack decided that he should just enjoy the new experience. It's not like he get to be swallowed by a growing robe every day.

Hence he watched as the robe completely devoured the two of them, blocking every ray of light out and surrounding them in complete darkness. Though, before he knew it, the darkness started fading, and within the blink of an eye, the darkness was gone. And right in front of them, was Santa's work desk.

"Woa." Was all that Jack could say as his eyes widened at the scene in front of him.

The room was pretty big, but not so spacious since there were shelves of toys everywhere. At the very center of the room was the large oak work desk. On the desk was the sculpture of a train track modeled from a roller coaster track, made completely out of ice. But the details, gosh, he could even count the number of nails on the track!

"You are welcome." Taking his seat on Santa's big red chair, Pitch nodded with a proud smile.

"I still think my idea would have worked though." Turning around and looking out of the small window fixed on the room's door, Jack muttered. It's definitely more exciting than just dropping in.

"Not to worry my friend, our job has just started. In fact, this is exactly where you come in." Joining Jack at the door, Pitch placed a hand on Jack's shoulder and bent down to look through the window as well.

"Oh, so we still get to freeze some yetis?" The blue eyed teen's face lit up as he held his staff closer to him.

"Of course. Go ahead and knock yourself out." Pitch nodded as he opened the door a little. "If you ever need help, my dark beauties are with you." He paused, as if he had remembered something. "But please, stop transforming them. Blue doesn't quite blend well into the shadows."

"Yeah sure, whatever you said. I've got the yetis anyway." Shrugging and grinning at the same time, Jack gave Pitch a wave and slid out quietly. The element of surprise was always handy when you're dealing with a mob of large and furry yetis.

After Jack had left the room, Pitch quietly shut the door and returned to the desk. Picking a black marker up from the desk, he decided to leave a little message for the guardians.

"Now, I simply can't wait for Christmas." He smirked, contented.


	4. Chapter 4

Hiding behind a pillar at the very top floor of the workshop, Jack peeked out from his hiding spot and looked down at the place.

The workshop had several floors and looked a lot bigger from inside. The center of the building was hollow, making space for an extra large globe model. The globe was spinning slowly on the spot and had lots of different colors on it. Jack swore that there won't be another globe model more 'Santa-like' than this one.

But what surprised him more than the interior design of the place was the fact that the yetis were making the toys. He was told to belief that the elves made the toys all his life!

"Well, that's an eye opener." Jack muttered with a grin as he continued to scan the place.

There were countless yetis walking around, busy with toy making and whatnot. The elves ran around in their ridiculous costumes, carrying plates of cookies with them. Oh, so now the elves were waiters? Jack watched as countless toys were tested at the same time. Toy trains and cars were running freely on the floors and all sort of flying toys roamed in the air; Jack had to duck a flying duck as it swooped over his head.

"Alright, the elves aren't the only ones that need a driving license." Feeling his grin grow, he looked down again.

Of all the yetis, however, two particular ones stood out. One looked extremely pissed … or depressed… he can't quite tell from the large amount of facial hair. But that yeti was definitely not happy as he painted a blue toy robot red using his small paint brush, mumbling or possibly swearing something at the same time. Jack was still wondering why the yeti was unhappy when he saw the huge stack of blue toy robots beside the yeti.

"Ohhhh. Santa's being picky huh?" Wow, now he actually felt sorry for the poor guy.

The other yeti who caught his eye was none other than Phil, or the yeti who always managed to lift him up from the hoodie as if he was some months old dirty laundry and toss him out of the place. Well Phil wasn't that bad. At least the guy would make sure that Jack land in soft snow. This other yeti tossed him out of the window and got him stuck on a dead tree's branches for half a day.

Deciding to 'thank' Phil for always tossing him out without fail, Jack tightened his hold on his staff and mentally counted to three. By three, he hopped out from his hiding place and pointed his staff downwards. Almost immediately, a track of clear ice appeared out of nowhere, leading downwards as Jack glided along the track, shouting 'woohoo' and attracting attention.

Make a flashy entrance. Check.

The track led him right to Phil, who turned around with a shocked expression. Realizing that Jack's most probably crashing into him, he quickly dropped his notepad and ducked down, just in time to see Jack glide back up and landed on the floor above him.

Element of surprise. Check.

"Hey Phil! How are you?" Jack laughed as he waved back at Phil, who was waving his hairy fist while shouting at him in some weird language. Jack didn't need to think twice before deciding that Phil was probably swearing at him in yeti.

"Nice to see you too!" He couldn't stop laughing at the reaction he received. Oh gosh, he should have taped Phil's expression just now. Way too epic to forget, that's for sure.

"Uh-oh." Before Jack could finish laughing, a crowd of elves and yetis were already charging at him from several directions. Hopping back on his foot, he flung himself over the floor's railing and with his staff, started his ice surfing in the air.

"Can't fly now, can you?" He joked and pointed his staff at the ground where the group was running towards. The ground was immediately covered in a thin and very slippery layer of ice. "Better know how to ice skate then!"

The yetis and elves leading the group immediately came to an emergency halt, heaving a sigh of relief when they managed to stop just before the ice patch. Though the ones at the back weren't about to stop in time… As the half at the back crashed into the front half, the whole group ended up rolling onto the huge patch of ice.

Dramatic fall. Check.

Jack was laughing so hard he was rolling around on his mid-air ice track as he watched the group below struggle to gain a stand. The yetis didn't have much problems, but the elves. Goddammit it was already hard enough normally, but with the pointy shoes that came with the costume, they could barely stand.

Seeing that the yetis couldn't move much with the randomly scattered elves everywhere, Jack took it that his job here was done and hopped off to explore the place. Hey, he barely managed to get past the yetis for the past 300 years, it's only normal for him to have a good look.

As he skidded over to what seemed like the coziest corner of the workshop, Jack fixed his eyes on a piece of paper stuck to the top of the fire place. Hopping over to it, he gave the paper a closer look. The paper had two columns printed on it. One column consisted of a vertical row of small boxes and the other was filled with lines of things to do.

Well look at that, Santa's to do list!

Seeing that Christmas was just a few days away, most of the boxes were ticked. Somewhat interested in what North's always doing in preparation for Christmas, Jack leaned closer and started reading the unchecked boxes.

"Feed the reindeers, fill the present bag, re-check good and naughty list, find Jack…?" Spotting his name on the list, the white haired teen's eyes widened. "Find me? Why would they find me?"

Quickly returning to the list, he read on. "Make Jack guardian, defeat Pitch… Me? A guardian? What about Pitch? Why do they- why must I join in defeating him?"

A guardian? No one told him anything about being a guardian! In fact, people haven't been telling him a lot of things lately. Jack stood rooted to the spot as he sorted things out in his confused mind.

If he was supposed to be the guardian, if he was supposed to help defeat Pitch, then why did Pitch come to him first? Why didn't he ever hear from any other guardians? It didn't make sense! Unless…

"Pitch." Jack muttered as he started pacing back and forth, thinking. "It must be him! He's not telling me anything and all I've been doing is what he's telling me to do." And as he thought of it, he realized that he had forgotten about the very reason he joined Pitch.

Just how exactly was Pitch going to make people, children out there, believe in them again?

"You seem to have questions."

A cold and calm voice sounded behind Jack, the latter spun around almost immediately, alert.

Pitch pursed his lips upon Jack's reaction; looked like the cat was out of the bag. Nonetheless, a careless mistake from his part.

"Yes, lots of them." Jack replied, sounding both mad and confused.

"Well, go ahead. Questions are meant to be asked." Pitched nodded, signaling for Jack to go on.

"Alright, why didn't you tell me that I'm supposed to be a guardian."

"You didn't ask me."

"But-"

"Before you ask me more questions, I suppose it's only fair for me to have some explanations done." Pitched lifted a hand as he cut into Jack's words. The latter frowned, but stayed quiet.

"It is in fact true that you are being chosen to be the next guardian, not by the guardians, but by the Man of the moon. But that's not the point. Jack, my boy, ask yourself, suppose the guardians really did come to you, do you want to be a guardian?" Pitch asked, moving to stand behind Jack as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

Jack didn't know how to answer this; he had never thought of being a guardian. Sure he had never really thought much about anything, but being a guardian is something of a different level of importance.

"Well?"

"I… I don't know."

"Hmm." Pitched let out a dry laugh. "Then take it as an advice from me, there's nothing fun about being a guardian. You are being tied down with a responsibility, and there's absolutely no fun in that, is there?"

"But you get believed in."

"Ahh, the only pathetic bit of benefit in a pile of inconvenience. Honestly Jack, if you are really meant to be a guardian, then why now? It's been 300 hundred years since you're here."

"Without a purpose."

"We all have a purpose. It's just a matter of time. Being a guardian however, is not your purpose. From the looks of it, I can safely conclude that the others think the same. Why else wouldn't they have showed up by now?"

"When you put it that way, I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. Aren't I always?"

"If you are, tell me. What do you have in mind to have us being believed in?"

"Ah, always aiming for bull's eye, I see." Pitched smiled coldly. "That's exactly why I'm here. Come; let me show you what I have in plan." He invited as he walked at the front.

"Alright, but no tricks this time." Casually pointing his staff at Pitch, Jack decided that Pitch meant no harm and followed suit.

"Oh, I wouldn't possibly dare to play tricks on the spirit of mischief himself, would I?" Pitch laughed, a little more friendly this time.

"Good, at least you know that." Jack smiled back, "Where are we going this time?"

"To town, I have to recall a certain boy saying that he wanted to mess with the guardians." Of course, he's planning something way beyond just messing around.

Something called a complete nightmare.

* * *

_Hey guys, this is the first A/N in 4 chapters and I just want to give all of you a huge thanks for reading this story. I'm honestly not a good writer and this is supposed to be a oneshot. But your support made it a long story, so be proud. You are awesome. yes, you, the one reading this right now. Stay that way. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. _


	5. Chapter 5

By the time the two reached the city, it was already night time and Sandy had started with his work. Jack stood on the roof of a building, watching in amusement as streaks of dream sand flowed past him, reaching for every child's dream and making it a fantasy. He looked up at the dark sky, wondering if he could spot Sandy nearby.

"Go ahead." Pitch suddenly said, getting Jack's attention. "Find them and ask what you wish to know. Just don't regret anything." He smiled.

By this point, Jack was no longer sure if Pitch was a friend or a foe. If possible, he would still hope for them to be friends. From the looks of it, Pitch wanted to maintain that relation too. "... Yeah, sure, why not? How bad can it get?" He smiled back after much consideration.

getting a nod from Pitch, The white haired teen took a step forward, free falling down the building. His fall was broken by a cold gust of wind, carrying him as he chased after a particularly thick streak of dream sand. Following the streak, he surfed in between the buildings full of dreaming kids.

He came to a smooth stop when he spotted a window different from the others; this one had carrots dancing out of the window while swinging candy canes around. Grinning to himself at how ridiculous it seemed, Jack pointed towards the window and within moments, the wind toned down to a gentle one and sent him towards the window.

Landing in the room quietly, he almost laughed out loud at the scene in front of him. All four of the guardians were in the room, but three of them were sound asleep and the only one away had the same "uh-oh" expression on his face as Jack's. Imagine Jack's surprise when he found out that the only kid in the room was none other than the kid who had the honors of riding with him. Jamie, right?

"Crazy night?" Jack laughed, keeping his volume down. Among the four guardians, he got to admit that he's probably most comfortable with Sandy. Why? Well... the Easter kangaroo kind of still remembered about that Blizzard on Easter Sunday, he's been trying to sneak into Santa's workshop for quite a while now (300 years, give or take) and he had never really met the tooth fairy before.

Well the tooth fairy's got a colorful taste, unlike someone Jack knew.

But Sandy, Jack's met Sandy plenty of times. Being a winter spirit with absolutely no responsibilities and rules to follow, he's pretty much very free. So while roaming the towns at night, Jack stumbled upon Sandy and his work. Fascinated, he followed the sand to the controller and before he knew it, the two of them became friends of little words.

Sandy shrugged his reply as he waved his hands. Then, looking at Jack with a questioning look, a question mark formed on his head.

"Oh, don't mind me. Just dropping by." Jack shrugged with a relaxed smile. "Though I seriously want to know, how do you do that with the sand?" He asked as he pointed his staff to the question mark. "Is that thing freezable?"

Sandy shrugged again, pushing the staff away with a smile; another way of saying "let's not try something silly".

Jacked laughed and turned back at the other three. "You think we can get a photo of this?" He joked, "you'll never know when it will come handy you know."

The latter was about to nod in agreement when something poked up from the window. The both of them immediately turned to look at the window. Jack's eyes widened at what it was; a horse as dark as the night itself, Pitch's pet.

Sandy on the other hand wasn't as calm. he immediately became defensive as he held out his hand. Immediately, the question mark shattered into sand particles, which then formed a whip in his hand. The creature of fear sensed the dangerous situation it was in and fled almost immediately. Sandy followed it out of the window without hesitation.

Jack watched as Sandy dashed out, riding on a cloud of dream sand, and wondered if he should follow. It was obvious that Pitch was behind the horse, but he couldn't understand why except that Pitch was up to something. But he can't just leave Sandy to fight alone...

"... I'm... I'm gonna regret this." Rolling his eyes at himself, Jack sighed and charged out of the window, giving the sleeping guardians one last glance before chasing after Sandy.

* * *

Pitch wondered how long he could have control over Jack.

Though it wasn't that much of an importance; Jack had proved his worth and done every task perfectly. Guess one really couldn't change another's purpose in life.

"You can have him back then." he spoke as he looked up at the crescent moon. "Though I have to say, I might have broken him a little." he smiled contently as he looked down from the top of the building, observing the town.

His fearlings have emerged from the shadows and were sneaking into every child's dream, changing their fantasies into fear filled nightmares. As the golden dream sands were slowly replaced by the coal dark specks of fear, Sandy finally appeared, riding his cloud of golden sand.

"Ahh, our guest has arrived." Pitch tightened his lips into a grin. Lifting a hand, a whole wave of dark sand gathered behind him, swirling around him and, taking the shape or a tornado, lifted him up into the air. "right on time as well, how very much delightful."

Pointing towards Sandy, dark horses started emerging from the tornado's body. One by one, the horses took their solid shape and galloped at Sandy, tens of them surrounding the solo fighter in no time. Sandy took no time to rest as two whips formed on his hand. Turing on the spot, he landed the whips on the horses mercilessly as the very cloud he's on started rising, trying to gain the same level of height Pitch was on.

Once the whip landed on the horses bodies, the horses started turning gold from the very spot where the whip had touched. Once the whole horse was covered in gold, it started fading from the outlines and become a part of Sandy's dream sand. It was a neat and efficient trick, if only there weren't so many of them.

Sandy fought hard, but the number of horses was just way too overwhelming. In fact, it's turned into such an unfair fight that even the horses decided that there's no need to charge at the guy one by one. In stead, they shook off their shape and returned to dark sand, which then swirled around Sandy.

By this time, Jack had already caught up with Sandy and was well aware that things weren't looking good for his friend. He had to say that he was a little surprised that Pitch was able to launch an attack an attack during such an fortunate time; with the other three guardians dead asleep, there's no way that Sandy could win.

"Still regretting it!" Sighing to himself, Jack took a deep breath and getting mentally prepared, plunged right through the ring of dark sand with the help of a gust of freezing wind, joining Sandy at the center. "Ok, Plan A, you take the ones on the left, I'll take the ones on the right."

Happy with the company, Sandy gave Jack a grateful smile, then nodded to what seemed like the world's simplest plan ever. As they battled it out with perfect teamwork, neither of them noticed that Pitch was smiling.

Taking a break from observing the fight, Pitch turned to look at where Sandy came from. It was then when he spotted a small dot fly over. Squinting his eyes for a better view, he soon recognized the dot to be Santa's sleigh. Looked like they managed to wake up on time after all. Brilliant, now that all the invited audience had arrived, it was time to get on to the show's climax.

Lifting both of his hands and assuming the position of holding a bow and arrow, the dark sand around him almost immediately formed into the requested weapon. With no time wasted, Pitch was already pulling on the ink black arrow and carefully taking aim. Now when it came to shooting live targets, timings were particularly the most important element of all. So Pitch waited and at the same time, the ring of dark sand surround Jack and Sandy started moving faster and increased in terms of thickness.

There was, of course, a purpose for that.

Taking note that the other guardians were probably close enough to have more a less a clear view, Pitch squinted his eyes and with a steady and smooth motion, let go of the arrow. the arrow sliced through the air with ease and stabbed right into the back of the unsuspecting victim.

By the time Sandy noticed it, he was already shot. Jack had sensed that something was off and turned to look at Sandy too. Man what a shock that was. Sandy had a painful expression on his face, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. From where the arrow had hit him, the sand around it had started turning black. The black patch started spreading out in a fast speed, and well. Jack started to freak out.

"Sandy! Sandy hang in there, fight it or something!" Jack suggested, flustered as he busied himself between Sandy and the attacking dark sand.

"Save it Jack, there's nothing you can do." Pitch's cold voice sounded in the midst of the panic, and for a moment, Jack simple stopped, and turned to glare at Pitch.

"There's no way to fight fear Sandy my friend, accept it. Accept your defeat." Pitch persuaded, ignoring a pair of mad blue eyes as he looked at Sandy. The latter put up a brave expression and faced it with determination.

Of course, aside from the teen, both of them knew how this fight was going to end.

* * *

"Can't this bloody thing go faster?!" Bunnymund complained as he fixed his eyes on the crowd in the far distance, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Complaining won't help!" North replied as he swung the reindeer strap in his hand, urging the deer to go faster.

"We won't make it! What should we do? Do you think it will be faster if I fly there?" Tooth asked indecisively in a incredible speed, making it a little difficult for the other two to actually understand her.

"Woa, woa, calm down there mate," Bunnymund advised as he waved his paws, "the only thing we can do now is hope that Santa here can go faste-"

The sleigh came to a sudden stop, interrupting Bunny as the two unknowing passengers stumbled in their seats.

"What in the world was that-"

"Sandy... No." North sighed, cutting into a certain bunny's complains and causing the two to look.

The scene that they were both observing from the start had taken a major change. All that was gold was gone, and as the dark sand faded into the dark night, only two figures remained.

One in full black, staring at them with a triumphant smile. The other had his back facing them, but his blue hoodie and unique staff made his identity clear. Sandy was nowhere to be seen. The one in black's smile grew as they came closer, and opening his mouth, mouthed two words at the three. Then, in front of their eyes, disappeared into the darkness, bringing the teen along with him.

"Is... that who i think he is?" Tooth asked, her face showing nothing but sadness. "Wh- what's going to happen to Sandy now? We can't just lose a guardian, can we?"

"...Seems like we just did." Bunny replied, his long ears drooping to his sad mood.

"We lost more than just one." North sighed, placing a hand on Tooth's shoulder and the other on Bunnymund's. "We've also lost Jack."

And with that, no one word was exchanged. All three of them had mixed feelings in their heart, and the one that stood out the most was probably fear.

For the last two words that Pitch gave them was "I win".


End file.
